Keeping At It

The Clay Class has grown over the past year and getting pieces fired is on-going. It's an interesting challenge to pack a kiln to its maximum capacity with the variety of shapes, sizes and thicknesses of pieces that very creative students can create. And I quite like the challenge. The process must tap into that weird, methodical, organizational part of my brain. I must say that the Skutt digital kiln makes it very easy. Already 300 firings and counting...knock on wood.

A Catching -Up is in Order

I am getting dangerously close to a year passing without posting. Can't let that happen. So the two images are of lots of pots and lots of people who attended the 2017 soup bowl fund raiser for the Draper Senior Center. It's a great event all around.  My Clay Class students have been working overtime creating new beautiful soup bowls for the next event which is less than two months away. Unbelievable!

From start to finish....this incised dish is made with a 50-50 mix of B-mix with grog and Draper clay from my yard. I carved the design when the clay was barely firm so it looks very fluid. Then when bone dry, of course, into a bisque fire it went. The white in the design is a white glaze I applied with the excess being carefully removed with a wet sponge.

Count Down To Soup Bowl Event

This Saturday, November 4 is the date. If you are in the neighborhood, be at the Draper Senior Center by 11 am. Buy a beautiful handmade, stoneware bowl for $12 dollars and fill it with all sorts of soups, etc. The photo above shows just a few of the 150 or so bowls my Clay Class and I have been working on since the beginning of the year.  Everyone is welcome to come to this fun fundraiser arranged by the Advisor Counsel.

Slip Swirl, Slip Scroll

A little slip decoration on these soup mug bowls for the Draper Senior Center fundraiser coming this Fall. The blue mug has some raised terra cotta slip scrolls covered with clear glaze. The other has a swirl of terra cotta slip painted onto greenware, also with a clear glaze finish. Some of the terra cotta color burned away and it gives the impression that the mug is already a gourmet cup of java.

Tiny and Fun

I made some very tiny pots, about the size of a thimble,  just for fun. A friend of mine saw them, exclaimed how cute they are but wondered how they could be used. Well, another friend of mine, a gardener, brought in the cutest miniature tomatoes. Perfect fit....just for fun.

I Like All Kinds of Bats

The upper photo is of my favorite North Star blue bat. Easy to mount on the wheel head pins and mmmmost importantly, my favorite color. The lower picture is the little animal that has been leaving little black pellets on the ground about a foot from my front door. Every evening, there are several bats that emerge at dusk, swooping around and about my front and backyard. Around 11pm, this little bat needs a break and hangs itself on the bricks. Good location; protected from the rain and the wind. Glad to have both.